The truth is, in my case at least, that when I have a problem to solve, a need or a gap to fill, the quick solutions never come to mind. In some situations that is not exactly convenient, but what can I do? It is my way! “My Way”, as the incomparable and unforgettable Frank Sinatra kept repeating, kept belting out, and eventually convinced us all.
What always comes to mind first, because that is how I have learned to work over the 36 years I have been programming, is to build a mechanism that deals with problems of that kind and eliminates them in future, without my having to break a sweat again!
But let us talk about the particular need, the one that answers to the grand word “organisation”. Let us set aside whatever political overtones the word carries and focus on how a business runs, small or large. Better still, let us focus on the absence of it, or worse, on getting it wrong, which then hangs like a sword of Damocles over the existence of the entire organisation. Same root, after all.
When you have many projects running at once, each with its own needs, its own notes, its own deadlines, its own clients or partners, its own appointments, with its quirks, its conveniences and its difficulties, with all the things that have to happen in the right order, separately for each and for all of them together, then what do you do? You guessed right: you get organised! You find a tool, you enter what needs entering, and then you find another tool, and maybe one more, and you try to make them all work together. And now you have an even bigger problem on your hands! You have turned your daily need for organisation into a daily problem that eats your time just keeping the pieces talking to each other.
Am I lying? Have you not run into this more than once? Do not tell me you solved it all with a notepad, a pen, sticky notes and a good memory, because I will not be able to keep writing for laughing! On your phone, you say? Do tell! But if we are going to be serious rather than idealistic, you know that everything we have described so far, me here and you in your own head, is a half measure. Half measures that work in isolation, only in particular cases, and with a high chance of error, and if that error arrives… I would rather not calculate the size of the damage. Unless you are one of those people who believe the universe will conspire to get your work done. On that one I fold. I will leave Mr Paulo Coelho arguing it out with the no longer Mr, since he has left this world, Frank Sinatra, and depart at short notice on a pleasure trip!
What I actually needed
At first I thought I needed a task list. A slightly complicated one, perhaps, but a list! I thought… because it had to have:
- Projects and tasks organised, with priorities and deadlines.
- People linked to the projects and the tasks: who is involved in what, and in what capacity.
- Notes for every single thing, where they belong, not scattered, as notes, comments or files.
- Reminders that find me at the right moment, wherever I happen to be, without my having to go looking for them.
- And most of all: the ability to find things instantly through a piece of text or, better still, someone I can simply ask, in my own language!
The story: the smart office
And that is roughly how Ekkremés was born. At its core sits a smart assistant that is not decorative - it works:
- It searches everything. All the projects, all the tasks, all the notes. You ask in plain words and it finds the answer.
- It answers and guides. Even when you cannot remember something, you ask the assistant and it points you in the right direction.
- It acts, with your approval. It is not limited to looking - it creates and updates tasks for you. It shows you its proposal and you decide whether to approve it. You are always the one in control.
Around the assistant, the office makes sure nothing falls through:
- A morning email every day, at the hour you choose, with the day’s obligations.
- Appointment reminders by email and through Telegram on your phone, where you can also see the whole day’s obligations, jot down ideas and more.
- Calendar: export your appointments once to Google, Apple or Proton, or sync directly over CalDAV with your own credentials, which are stored encrypted.
- Send by email: whatever you see on screen you can send to someone as a proper branded email, or print it to PDF or onto paper.
It does not just organise lists, it builds your day
And this is where Ekkremés genuinely stands apart from anything else. It does not just hand you a list of what you have to do, it builds your day for you, if you ask it to.
With one button, Autopilot takes your open items and fits them into your working hours, respecting what you have already arranged, with no overlaps. If you want to get more specific, you choose how the day is grouped: by priority, by client, by project or by category. You can tell it to arrange only a particular slice of time, or to put the easy things first and the tough ones after. You see what it proposes and approve it before anything is applied.
And so that you can see your work the way that suits you, there are three views: Day with a visual timeline, Kanban with columns by status, and Calendar for the monthly picture.
And one more thing: the assistant that reads your documents
Something that got me even more excited came along the way. On the higher plans, the assistant can read and comment on a file you upload: an agreement, a quote, a PDF or an image. It explains what it says, picks out the important points and flags what to watch for, in your language, even when the document is written in another one!
It is like having someone next to you who reads your documents and explains them in plain words. It does not replace your lawyer or your accountant. It is help in understanding the document, not legal, tax or other professional advice.
From one person to a team
What started as a tool just for me grew up. Because the same need for organisation exists in every small team, and that is exactly where things get tangled even faster: who is doing what, who is available, where each task stands.
So Ekkremés grew! On the Enterprise plan a team can share projects, you can see who is connected at that moment, exchange messages inside the application, and move or copy tasks to other members of the team. You can even work on shared tasks, each with their own role. You start alone and, if you need to, you grow into a team without having to change tools.
Needs will always multiply
And just when you say “that is it, I have built exactly what I was missing”, you get a taste for it and want to add more. So you bring in a Doorkeeper to chase your clients (it is a program, do not get confused), a Collector to chase your money (also a program), you keep Proof of request, the immutable history of every request, for the day someone tells you “I never received anything”, you add the Opportunity Radar for tenders and public notices and the ESPA Grant Hunter (programs, all of them)! And then you build ready made routes, the Playbooks, for accountants, lawyers, civil engineers and estate agents!
But I will let Ekkremés show you all of that itself. It is waiting to welcome you, with free access so you can get acquainted.
Why it matters in the end
Ekkremés is not something designed in a meeting room. It was built by someone who was facing exactly these problems and solved them for himself first! That is its guarantee: every feature exists because it was genuinely needed, not because it looked good on a feature list.
The same need for organisation belongs to every professional and every business owner who, like a juggler, has to keep a lot of balls in the air. That is why I decided not to keep it to myself. Ekkremés is already here. It is the tool anyone can use, and then have the time left over to wonder what on earth they were doing all this while without it. That is what matters: having time on your side!
And so a personal need became a product. And so the need became a story.
Visit the Ekkremés page to discover what it can do.